OASIS Mailing List ArchivesView the OASIS mailing list archive below
or browse/search using MarkMail.

 


Help: OASIS Mailing Lists Help | MarkMail Help

security-services message

[Date Prev] | [Thread Prev] | [Thread Next] | [Date Next] -- [Date Index] | [Thread Index] | [Elist Home]


Subject: Agenda and Parliamentary Procedure for the FTF meeting


All,

Robert's rules of order impose some constraints on the way a meeting
may be run, and how it may consider and dispose of documents.

In order to be most productive, we need to use Robert's rules to do the
things they were intended to do.  Specifically, we need to use Robert's rules
to record areas where we have reached consensus, and to refer things we don't
have consensus about back to committees for more work and recommendations.

I don't want to go into parliamentary procedure in too much theoretical detail
here.  However, a few points are in order (no pun intended).

First, parliamentary procedure strictly limits the kind of things we can talk
about.  We can basically consider two kinds of things: the report of a subcommittee,
or a motion from a member of the full committee to take some action.

To the greatest extent possible, I hope we can work by acting on the recommendations
of subcommittees, since these are the forums in which we do most of our (offline and
telecon) work.  If we feel something serious is missing and needs to be dealt with
immediately, or if there's a point of procedure or other constraint on our operations
we wish to make which we don't want to have reflected in the final document, then we
can deal with it as a motion from the floor.

When considering a subcommittee's recommended text, we need to carefully avoid simply
voting down a motion to adopt the text which a subcommittee has produced.  Doing this
would have a couple of bad effects:
     (i) it would cause us to lose the benefits of the debates we've already
          had online and the ones we'll have at the FTF, and
     (ii) at least formally, it would require the subcommittees to start over
          from scratch on the sections they've worked on.  It might actually
          formally end the work of the subcomittee and force us to constitute
          a new subcommittee.
Therefore, instead of voting against adoption of a subcommittee's report if we feel
it isn't finished or needs to be fixed, we should make a motion to REFER the matter
back to the subcommittee for more work, probably with specific instructions about
what we want done.  The motion to Refer takes precedence over both the main motion
(i.e. the one to adopt the subcommittee's report) and any amendments to the main
motion, so we can use it to send the subsection back to the subcomittee as soon as we
feel we've stopped making progress in the FTF, while still preserving the progress we
HAVE made in the body of the amended document and in the instructions to the subcommittee.

With these points in mind, here's how I imagine the meeting will go:

1. Call to order
2. Roll call to determine quorum (the remainder of this assumes we pass the quorum requirement)
3. Motion (and vote) to approve the minutes of the previous meeting
     (as a personal aside, I have no idea what happens if this motion fails -- I've
     never seen it fail.  If anyone knows, I'd be happy to learn this.)
4. Motion (and vote) to approve the agenda for this meeting
5. Motion to adopt Bob's recommended outline as the outline for our final specification
     5a. Motions to Amend this motion; debate and vote on each amendment
     5b. Vote on the motion to adopt, OR Motion to Commit the outline to a new subcomittee
          (one of these votes should PASS!)
6. Motion to adopt the recommendation of the use cases and requirements subcommittee as the
     use cases and requirements subsection of our final specification
     6a. Motions to Amend this motion (these should take the form of amendments recommending
          specific changes to the text of the use cases and requirements document,
          especially amendments recommending inclusion or exclusion of specific content)
          6ai. Debate and vote on each amendment
     6b. Motion to Refer the document back to the use cases and requirements subcomittee
          6bi. Debate on the instructions to the subcommittee
          6bii. Vote on the motion to refer (this motion should PASS!)
7. Motion to adopt the recommendation of the core assertions subcommittee as the core
     assertions subsection of our final specification
     7a.
          7ai.
     7b.                 (All same as in section 6)
          7bi.
          7bii.
8. Motion to adopt the recommendation of the protocols subcommittee as the protocols
     subsection of our final specification
     8a.
          8ai.
     8b.                 (All same as in section 6)
          8bi.
          8bii.
9. Motion to adopt the recommendation of the core assertions subcommittee as the core
     assertions subsection of our final specification
     9a.
          9ai.
     9b.                 (All same as in section 6)
          9bi.
          9bii.
10. Call for new business
11. Motion to adjourn

If we all agree that this is how things should happen, then the following agenda should
be followed (with two omissions not relevant to our first FTF, this is the standard
Roberts' agenda for a meeting).  Motions from the floor would be taken during the "New
Business" segment:

1. Call to Order
2. Reading and approval of minutes of past meeting
3. Reading and approval of agenda
4. Reports of standing subcommittees
5. New Business

--bob

Bob Blakley
Chief Scientist
Enterprise Solutions Unit
Tivoli Systems, Inc. (an IBM Company)



[Date Prev] | [Thread Prev] | [Thread Next] | [Date Next] -- [Date Index] | [Thread Index] | [Elist Home]


Powered by eList eXpress LLC